THE ANALYSIS OF CORNEAL TRANSPLANTATION IN THE HOSPITAL OF LITHUANIAN UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCIENCES EYE CLINIC OVER 6 YEARS

Agnė Lubytė, Tomas Būbnelis, Vytautas Jašinskas

Lithuanian University of Health Sciences

ABSTRACT

Introduction:Corneal blindness account for 4% of the world’s 45 million blinds, a large portion of which is treatable [1]. Blindness due to corneal disease results from numerous degenerative, dystrophic, infectious, and inflammatory corneal disorders and corneal damage appears secondary to ocular surface disease [2]. Treatment for many people with these conditions can be provided via a corneal transplantation (CT), making access to CT essential to prevent blindness and subsequent disability [3]. CT is considered the world’s most frequent type of transplantation: nearly 200 000 transplantations a year are performed in 116 countries cooperating with 742 eye banks. The United States has the highest transplantation rate, followed by Lebanon and Canada. About 53% of the world’s population have no access to corneal transplantation [4]. 30-70 CT are performed in Lithuania each year, mostly in the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kauno klinikos, with around 100 patients on the corneal transplant waiting list [5].

Aim: to analyze indications and surgical techniques of corneal transplantation at the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Eye Clinic over a 6 year period.

Methodology: the retrospective analysis has been done after collecting data from the National Transplant Bureau [5] and health records of all the patients (n=125) who underwent corneal transplantation surgery at the Eye Clinic of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences during 2010-2015.. The significance level of p=0.05 was chosen to test statistical hypotheses.

Results:during this 6 year period from a total of 125 corneal transplants performed, we had access to 114 medical records (91.2%).

Quality of vision statistically significantly has improved for patients with keratoconus from V 0,062±0,130 to V 0,201±0,177 (p<0,001), corneal leucoma from V 0,029±0,051 to V 0,132±0,025 (p<0,001) and PBK/ABK from V 0,025±0,025 to V 0,116±0,027 (p<0,05).

Conclusions: our study has shown that leading indication for penetrating keratoplasty is keratoconus (35,7%), followed by corneal leucoma (29,6%). Quality of vision was improved in all cases after penetrating keratoplasty.